


how do you fight when you feel like flying?

by PuriPuki



Series: blessed be the boys time can't capture [10]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Parent Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 17:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9336068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuriPuki/pseuds/PuriPuki
Summary: Olivia and Henry decide to rear their first child in Regna Ferox.





	

Olivia and Henry decide to rear their first child in Regna Ferox, Olivia’s homeland, over Plegia or Ylisse. As such, Inigo spends the first eight years of his life in the capital city of Ferox, where his mother teaches dance to the children and his father works as what one might call an off-brand apothecary. He is a shy child and knows it, lingering at the back of the crowds of children and rarely joining in on games. 

 

“Inigo, sweetpea,” Olivia asks him one evening, “do you want to be less shy?” He remembers nodding vigorously, and his mother went on to say, “Why don’t you try talking to girls? A friend of mine helped me be less shy that way, I promise it’ll work, okay?”

 

Inigo knows that his mother tells the truth, because, duh, that’s what all parents do, so he does what she suggests. He gets better, day by day, and has two friends soon enough. It’s still difficult to make friends, Inigo cries to his mother after a particularly hard day, telling her about the boys who tease him about wanting to be a dancer.

 

“Wanting to be a dancer is one hundred percent okay, sweetpea, even if you’re a boy,” Olivia soothes him, wiping away the fat tears dripping down his cheeks. Henry is holding him, his six year old body still small enough to be held. “If you want to, I can teach you how to dance, okay?”

 

“Really?” Inigo sniffles, still clinging to his father’s cloak.

 

“Of course she will! That way, you can show all those mean boys how great of a dancer you are!” His father exclaimed, finally getting a giggle out of Inigo. 

 

His lessons begin the next morning, where Olivia guides him into the proper form of a young dancer; back straight, head held high, light on his feet. His mother tells him that he’s already going to be a great dancer, that he has the perfect form for it. She teaches him the first few steps of a dance a few weeks later, just past his eighth birthday, and he practices them so much that he’s sure he’ll never forget them.

 

The autumn harvest festival is always a jubilant time in Ferox, and the excitement of the games and contests in the center of town is infectious. Inigo begs his parents to take him, spinning stories about how he’ll win his mother and father the best of the best prizes at the booths - it doesn’t take much for Henry and Olivia to give in. They walk hand in hand to the center of town, and are about to buy Inigo a candied apple when it happens.

 

September 4th, the beginning of the festival, is the worst day of Inigo’s life.

 

Risen come. He’ll soon find that they always do, always lurking just out of sight. His parents are the only ones there that are armed - his father is never without a tome, and his mother has long since carried her sword to public outings, always preaching safety and self defenses. They scream at him for the first time, begging for him to run away, to go home, to escape. 

He does, but not soon enough. Inigo manages to get maybe five feet away before there’s a choked out scream and a wet squelch, and he turns around to see a sword going through his mother’s chest. He turns around and runs as fast as he can, pushing past the Feroxi soldiers headed for the Risen and past the people who ask, “Where are your parents?”.

 

He doesn’t stop running until he’s home. He packs a small bag, taking bread, one of his father’s tomes, one of his mother’s swords, and the jerky that they feed Snickers. Inigo has finally gotten the leash on their - his - dog when a soldier appears at the front door.

 

“I’m so sorry,” the man says, handing him two silver bands. “They died honorably, and they will be remembered.”

 

“Thank you,” Inigo whispers, turning the other way and beginning the long walk to Ylisse.

  
  


When he arrives in Ylisstol, he is hungry and exhausted, looking more like a street rat than the child of war heroes. The soldiers at the gates to the castle won’t let him inside, saying no one is allowed inside without permission from the King and Queen, even though he tells them multiple times that he’s Olivia’s son, so he sits in front of the doors and refuses to move.

 

Three hours later, the Royal Couple returns to the castle, arms full of new tomes and fruits of the harvest. 

 

“Queen Robin,” Inigo calls, reaching out to grab at her skirts before a knight pushes him back, “please, I’m Olivia’s son! She told me to come here if something bad happened, please, I-”

 

“Quiet, rat!” The knight barks at him, sending shivers down his spine, “Don’t harass the Queen with your drivel!”

 

“Thank you, Calem, but that won’t be necessary,” The Queen says, bending down to Inigo’s height, “You’re Inigo, yes? Olivia and Henry’s son?”

 

“Yes,” He says, trembling, “they died. Momma told me to go t-to the castle in Ylisse if something bad happened.”

 

The Queen hands off her armfuls of tomes, and takes his hand, saying, “We were close friends with your parents, we’ll take care of you now, okay?”

 

For three years, he trains under the King’s hand with Lucina and Owain, eats with them at supper and breakfast, celebrates birthdays and holidays with them, and learns bits and pieces of magic from the Queen.

 

It’s not as hard for him when they die as it is for Lucina, but it still feels like he’s lost his parents all over again. 

 

As the world collapses around him, Inigo still finds time for his indulgences - an hour or two at the last bar still standing in Ylisse, chaste romances with the young women and men of the city, hours on end in the dark of night spent dancing what he remembers. In between the hours of sparring and training, he’ll sneak off to the empty castle halls for the only normalcy of adolescence he has, exchanging wet kisses with a boy too stubborn and afraid to say “I love you” back.

 

A week before his seventeenth birthday, Lucina scatters them to the wind in search of the gemstones. “With the stones, we can save the world,” she tells them, igniting one last bit of hope in him.

 

He takes Owain, Yarne, and Brady with him in search of Argent and Gules. Inigo is ernest is his search for them, believing wholeheartedly that five little stones can fix everything. They go to Plegia first, and snatch Argent from the last of the aristocrats quickly. The trek through the desert to Ferox is a long one, and unwelcomed - Ferox is the last place Inigo wants to go.

 

The capital city is deserted. Skeletons litter the streets, bones of all sizes - men, women, the elderly, and children alike. They pass his old house. It is too quiet.

 

Gules sits in a small room off of the Khan’s quarters, atop of a pillar and encased in glass that now lays on the ground, shattered. The little black gem that could’ve saved the world is in pieces, along with Inigo’s hope.

 

The journey back to Ylisse is a somber one.

 

He knows that Gerome is furious, it’s one of the few emotions he isn’t hesitant to show, but all is not lost. Despite not having all five stones, there is still hope - the past may save them yet. When Lucina tells them that travelling back in time, that fixing the past so their wretched future never happens, is a real and viable option, he is among the first that volunteer to go.

 

Gerome opposes, always contrary. They yell, scream at the other, only to be silenced by a soft burst of elwind and the tremble of the earth beneath them.

 

“Risen are coming,” Yarne whisphers, fearful, as the others take to the sky and the rest of them try to save any remaining villagers from the threat. Their actions are familiar, their way with swords and lances so similar to their own, the connection is made quickly after one shatters Yarne’s beaststone.

 

“These are my soldiers,” Kjelle chokes out, tears threatening to spill over, “I taught them about the stones, I taught them how to fight like this, it’s all my fault, they’re-” 

The three of them take grievous blows, but Inigo manages to get them to Brady, who is tearful and hunched over the body of a young girl. Owain, sitting next to Brady, is talking to himself about his own failures, before declaring that he’s going to ‘fend off’ the remaining risen.

 

Inigo goes with him, Severa and Kjelle’s protests falling deaf on his ears. They don’t make it far, before Lucina jumps from Minerva’s back and tells them, “Don’t waste your lives. It’s over. Ylisstol has fallen.”

 

That night, he seeks out Gerome and finds him in what used to be his private spot - a little field near a creek, where he danced until his legs gave out. 

 

“I’m going to stay with you,” He says, and he wants to - no man left behind, right?” “I’m going to stay, I won’t get in the way, but I won’t leave anyone behind to die alone.”

 

“I’m not going to be responsible for you staying here,” Gerome says after a beat of silence, “Make your preparations.” Before Inigo can really respond, Gerome and Minerva are off, flying to who knows where.

 

“I better see you on Mount Prism tomorrow!” He calls out anyway, a tired smile returning to his face.

 

(It is dark, when Naga hurls them into the past. He can’t see anyone and he feels his fingers slipping from Gerome’s before landing in a field of flowers)

 

Valm, where he finally settles, is war torn, and Inigo takes it upon himself to protect the family whose farm he landed nearby, keeping their children and livestock safe from ruffians and pillagers in return for a place to sleep at night.

 

But just as the ruffians grow in size and stage a bigger attack, the Shepherds come running. A swordmaster and sorcerer fight side by side, silver rings catching the light of the thunder bouncing off the man’s hands.

 

_ Oh,  _ he thinks,  _ They’re here. _

 

The rings he and Olivia wear match,  _ duh _ , and he joins them in their travels and attempts to stop Valm’s need to conquest. Only Owain and Lucina are with them, but it isn’t long until Brady joins them again. Henry - at least five inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than he remembers - assures him that they’ll find all of the other future kids. 

 

The past is nice. Olivia teaches him the last of the dance. Henry, albeit reluctantly, teaches him a few spells and hexes. The first night he’s back, he eats his first true meal for the first time in years. Snickers is still a puppy, a fluffy little thing that could be held in one’s palm. Eventually, they find Gerome and the embrace they share after the battle is one of the longest he’s ever had. 

  
The fight isn’t done, and he knows that, but… he is content, at last.

**Author's Note:**

> gOOD FUCKING LORD THIS TOOK FOREVER which is weird bc inigo is my fave future kiddo but. here ya go ya filthy animals


End file.
